A Time of Reflection - Essay Example

Military tension was culpable between the two world powers, and they even engaged in proxy wars as they tried to outdo each other. The tension created by the Cold war affected day to day lives of Americans. Between 1946 and 1964, it is estimated that some 20 million babies were born in the US. This is the generation that grew up during the tension filled years of the Cold War. It is also the generation that witnessed the Civil Movement. I am a proud member of this generation which is commonly referred to as the Baby Boomers.

I grew up during a time when the politics of the United States seemed almost uncertain. There was the ever threatening return-to-war feeling among the general populace. The never-ending tug-of-war between the US and USSR created a fear among citizens. This generated into a phenomenon that came to be known as Duck and Cover as people were afraid that the enemy (that is, the USSR) would drop a nuclear bomb on any part of the country and we had to be ready to duck and find cover if and when that happened.

This kind of tension was particularly unnerving for the young generation born after the war. I think the older generations were able to deal with the situation since they had experienced the Second World War and were used to such tension. In my understanding at that time, they were too afraid to speak out of the effects that war was having on the common citizens. But I was not. I felt that it was my right to speak out what I thought should be spoken out. If I thought that something was wrong and it needed to be corrected I was bold enough to say it.

My outspokenness was a behavior I had picked up from my grandmother since when I was a child. The Civil Rights Movement In 1961 I joined college and like many other young people at the time, I had great expectations for my future. I knew I wanted a good life for myself and I understood that a college education would at least guarantee me a good job with good pay, of course. The 60s were tumultuous years, especially in regards to the Civil rights Movements and the conflicts that came with it. I had heard stories told of how Rosa Parks had defied the high and mighty to secure herself a seat in bus seat that was reserved for whites only.

I grew up admiring her courage to face up to people whom she knew could do anything to her if they wanted to. The first time I heard her story, I went home and during dinner asked my mother why people hated parks so much that they did not want her to sit in a set that she had paid for in a bus. My mother tried to explain that people did not hate her, that it was just that people like her could only seat at a designated place in the bus. I was too young to understand the concept of discrimination, but something at the back of my head told me that the treatment Rosa Parks had received was not fare.

I think that was the first time I really was able to develop an anti-status quo attitude which I would carry on later into my adulthood. We had an African housekeeper at home whose son, Jeremy was more or less the same age as me. We were quite good friends and even though we attended different schools (I was in an all-white school while he was in an all black one), we did our school work together. I found him to be brighter than some of the students at my own school. He practically taught me everything I needed to know in all my science subjects.

After high school we both went to different colleges but we remained good friends until he